This invention relates generally to automatic flushing and seat raising arrangements for toilets. More particularly, this invention relates to automatic flushing and automatic lid and seat raising arrangements for toilets which can be incorporated as original equipment or retrofitted to existing toilets.
As set forth in Applicant""s U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,127, incorporated in its entirety herein by reference, it is generally desirable to be able to use a toilet without touching the toilet or at least touching the toilet as little as possible. For health reasons, both real and imagined, it is especially desirable to minimize or eliminate touching of a toilet or any of its components by hand. Hands come into contact with not only food and eating utensils, but with other people. It is well known that toilets harbor microorganisms for numerous diseases from dysentery to hepatitis. Moreover, it is well known that many people are not in the habit of washing their hands after using a toilet. Consequently, avoidance of touching the surfaces of toilets can help break disease transmission chains. While having touch free toilets in homes is certainly desirable for many reasons, public touch free toilets are highly desirable because the users do not know one another and are not in constant contact and proximately with one another, other than through common toilet use.
It is of course, highly desirable to have automatic flush and automatic lid and seat raising arrangements which are not only usable with newly manufactured toilets, but also with the millions of toilets, both public and private, which already exist.
Toilet seat arrangements are generally standard with one manufacturer""s seats and lids being hinged on toilet bowls using a pair of bolts in substantially the same way as another manufacturer""s lids and seats. This is not the case with flush mechanisms. However, practically all toilets which use a flush tank have overflow tubes and liftable valves which close flush tank outlets that dump water at a rapid rate from the flush tanks into toilet bowls. In view of these considerations, there is a need for automatic flushing as well as automatic seat/lid raising and lowering arrangements which are readily adaptable to both original equipment and existing installations.
In one aspect of the present invention, it is directed to touch free arrangements for automatically raising and lowering toilet lids and seats and/or for automatically flushing toilets upon sensing an approach of a person intending to use the toilet and upon sensing the departure of that person after using the toilet. In accordance with this aspect of the invention, an optical sensing arrangement is disposed in a flush tank top so that in order to use the system, one need only replace an existing or conventional flush tank top with flush tank top in accordance with the present invention. In a more specific aspect of this sensing arrangement, the new flush tank top includes a pair of optical sensors which have a sensing axes that converge to a point in front of the toilet, wherein the sensors activate the lid and/or seat as a person approaches the toilet to raise the lid and/or seat and lowers the lid and/or seat when the person moves away from the toilet. The sensing arrangement also preferably initiates flushing the toilet after the person moves away.
In still a further aspect of the invention, the flush tank top includes a vertically oriented optical sensor which detects the presence of a person""s hand which can optionally flush the toilet without touching the flush handle or can optionally raise or lower the seat and/or lid without touching either.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, an automatic flushing actuator is adapted to be mounted on an overflow pipe in a flush tank of a toilet in which the flush tank includes an outlet normally closed by a valve. The automatic flushing actuator comprises a housing adapted to the mounted on the overflow pipe and an operator mounted on the housing. The operator is adapted to be coupled to the valve for allowing the valve to remain closed when the operator is in a first mode and for opening the valve when the operator is in the second mode. A motor mounted in the housing is coupled to the operator through a first-lost motion connection for causing the operator to cycle from the first mode to the second mode and back to the first mode. A second lost-motion connection couples the operator to the manual flush device for manually shifting the operator from the first mode to the second mode without energizing the motor.
In a more specific aspect, the first lost motion connection of the automatic flush actuator comprises a cam driven by the motor to cycle through two positions corresponding to the first and second modes of the operator. The first lost-motion connection includes a coupling between the cam and the operator with the coupling positively coupling with the operator when the cam is cycling through the two positions and decoupling from the cam when the operator is in the first mode.
In still a further aspect of the invention, the coupling of the first loss motion connection is a cam follower which rests on the operator and always allows the operator to move from the first mode to the second mode when pressing the manual flush device.
In a preferable aspect of the invention, the operator is a lever which is pivoted with respect to the housing, the lever having a long portion and a short portion, with the long portion being connected to the valve and the short portion being in engagement with the cam follower, wherein when the cam follower is driven by the cam, it causes the lever to lift and open the valve.
In still a further aspect of the invention, the lever of the operator is connected to the flush handle device wherein when the flush handle device is operated, the operating lever is lifted independently of the cam follower so as to open the valve manually without energizing the motor of the automatic flush operator.
The invention further includes a device for automatically raising and lowering a toilet lid, and optionally, a seat possibly in cooperation with the aforedescribed automatic flush actuator. This device comprises an arrangement for sensing the presence of a person and includes a base to be secured to the toilet bowl adjacent the rim thereof as well as a housing attached to the base. A drive assembly is positioned within the housing. The drive assembly includes a motor and an output shaft as well as a first coupling for attaching the output shaft to the seat via a lost-motion connection allowing the output shaft to rotate through a selected angle before rotating the first coupling to raise the seat. A second coupling is provided for connecting the output shaft to the lid, wherein the second coupling has a clutch which disengages after the lid has been raised so that continued rotation of the drive shaft past a selected angle then raises the seat.